Lara Croft is returning to the big screen in the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot starring Alicia Vikander.
With all the recent success of even the most trivial superhero films, it looks like Hollywood is taking another stab at reinvigorating video game adaptations as well. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since current video games sometimes already play like interactive movies. However, they must be done right.
Take a look at Marvel. They’ve honored their characters and have tried to stay relatively true to their stories. When you look back on the past video game adaptations, they have not even come close to honoring the games they share a name with in almost every instance. Super Mario Bros., Resident Evil, and Max Payne have all betrayed fans of the franchises and have all been critically panned.
The filmmakers of the upcoming Tomb Raider film are taking the first step to correct the wrongs of past adaptations by casting Alicia Vikander in the role of Lara Croft. Vikander is fresh off her first Oscar nomination and win for The Danish and she was also fantastic in last year’s Ex Machina. She’ll be taking over the role of Lara from Angelina Jolie in the ho-hum early 2000’s films, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.
With this weekend’s release of Ratchet & Clank, this upcoming December’s release of Assassin’s Creed, and the Tomb Raider reboot, gaming fans could either be in for a treat or just more nightmares. Filmmakers need to realize why these gaming franchises are so popular in the first place. Gamers get attached to the characters and the stories (*surprise, surprise*) just like movie audiences do.
If nothing else, at least a young, upcoming actress is going to be taking on the lead role. Hopefully studios will finally realize what they have in their video game properties. It’s time to start making faithful, entertaining adaptations of characters and stories that gamers, as well as casual fans, can appreciate.
